Microsoft was founded a few months after what may have been the first use of the term “internet.” In some ways the two have grown up together. Now, Microsoft wants to enter its next stage of life in lockstep. The company announced plans on Tuesday to buy video-game company Activision Blizzard in a deal valued at about $75 billion, and framed it as a pricey wager that games will be central to a more immersive iteration of the internet that still largely exists only as a buzzword: the “metaverse.” The size of the deal points to its potential strategic value. Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date, LinkedIn, cost less ... (full story)